Can You Safely Refreeze Ham?

Have quite a few leftover trip ham, and questioning when you possibly can freeze a number of of it to get pleasure from later? What if the ham hasn’t been cooked however? Can it return throughout the freezer? The reply to every is bound. It’s fully protected to refreeze ham (every cooked or uncooked), as long as it was thawed throughout the fridge (Completely different methods of thawing aren’t actually useful). That is what you wish to know to get good outcomes.

Freeze and Refreeze

For safety features, ham should be refrozen inside three days of thawing. There may be a slight change in top quality because of moisture misplaced all through thawing, which could affect the texture of your defrosted meat. Do not refreeze ham that’s been left open air the fridge longer than two hours. Make sure the meat is packaged appropriately, so it might not get freezer-burned.

You most likely have a number of ham to freeze, think about dividing it into smaller elements sooner than you stick it throughout the freezer. It will imply you possibly can pull out explicit particular person packages, with out having to thaw out all the ham.

Thawing

To utilize your ham after it has been frozen (or refrozen), take away the bundle of frozen ham from the freezer, and allow it to defrost throughout the fridge. Counting on the size, it should thaw totally in about 24 to 48 hours. In the event you occur to’re dealing with a smaller portion, or should thaw it out faster, there are some suggestions that will thaw your ham in as little as half-hour.

Don’t Overlook the Ham Bone

You may wish to freeze the ham bone, while you are at it. It could be used to make a delicious pot of soup or broth. Merely be warned: Once you fashion ham broth, you could possibly on no account settle for hen broth as soon as extra.

Makes use of for Leftovers

Consider using your ham to make accomplished meals that you could be freeze for later. Ham soup and quiche are simple to make, they often every freeze beautifully. When you’re fast on time, having ready-made meals that you could be pull out and reheat is an precise luxurious.

In the event you occur to don’t must spend a bunch of time cooking now, ponder chopping some—or all—of your ham sooner than you freeze it. It will make it easy in order so as to add to pasta dishes, casseroles, and soups. As long as you put it to use in a dish that could be heated, you don’t even should thaw it first.

Maintain With What’s in Your Freezer

You may wish to label and date your ham sooner than you set it throughout the freezer, so you don’t lose observe of it. Frozen ham will maintain indefinitely, nonetheless is biggest used inside a yr.

The USDA Safe Meals Coping with site has a number of useful information.